Recordbreakerz developing talent through 7-on-7 football

Entering into his high school years as a football player didn’t look too promising for Jayden Bodison. 

He struggled with his grades and fractures on both feet made it hard for him to focus on the sport. It cost him two years before he had a breakthrough.

That came when he was introduced to 7-on-7 football by Devin Rispress, assistant head coach at Gadsden County High School. Both were at Godby High School, Rispress as an assistant coach and Bodison as a player trying to find his way.

Bodison, now a rising senior, is looking to his first season of playing at Marshall University after being offered a scholarship by the Thundering Herds.

“Before the season started (last year), going to college was looking kind of cloudy for him,” said Rispress, “but after a 7-on-7 season he had a lights out year.”

Bodison is one of the latest success stories that Rispress could share, thanks to his ties to the Recordbreakerz’s 7-on-7 program. It has become the way that several players from area high schools get exposed to college coaches. 

Devin Rispress is changing the lives of high school football players by giving them an opportunity to play for the Recordbreakerz’s 7-on-7 team.
Photo by Idris Smith

The 7-on-7 concept isn’t new, although the games have become popular over the last decade. Players compete for a championship in tournaments that usually run all day before a champion is crowned.

The matchups bring together players who otherwise might not compete against each other. His two years with the Recordbreakerz has allowed him to become “more versatile,” Bodison said.

The list of Recordbreakerz alums is a lengthy one that includes player from Jacksonville and the Big Bend. Some of them are Marcus Riley, Louisville/Bethune Cookman; Destin Coates, Georgia State; Myjai Sanders, Cincinnati; Aric Horne, Iowa University, and Kelvin Dean, a redshirt freshman at FAU.

Being exposed while playing tournaments in South Florida were essential to the offer from FAU, said Dean, who also had offers from a length list of schools that includes Temple and Ohio State. 

“Showing out in those games kind of helped,” he said. “We had a lot of big games.”

Rispress joined the Recordbreakerz’s coaching staff at the urging of his college roommate Maurice Harris in 2016. Together they have been grooming young men into top-notch talent.

“The key thing for them is working with top talent day in and day out,” Rispress said. “They benefit from it.”

So did Sanders, who said his experience at Cincinnati sometimes feels a little surreal.

“I worked for it,” he said, “but many times it’s just something that I didn’t know would come like this.”